


Reborn

by Pixxyofice



Series: Regrow - A Persona 4 Arcana Swap AU [2]
Category: Persona 4
Genre: Alternate Universe - Arcana Swap (Persona Series), Gen, Just like my first drabble. character death is mentioned but it doesn't last for long, New Game Plus, Saki Konishi Lives, but with a twist!, now for my favorite part of this au: this stuff i came up with hehe, persona 4 protagonist is named Souji, three other characters are mentioned!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-23
Updated: 2020-09-23
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:34:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,363
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26606809
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pixxyofice/pseuds/Pixxyofice
Summary: Saki wakes up feeling like she's dying.From there, everything feels off.
Series: Regrow - A Persona 4 Arcana Swap AU [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1935223
Comments: 14
Kudos: 20





	Reborn

Saki lurched upwards in her bed, her heart rapidly pounding in her chest and her ears ringing sharply. She couldn't breathe, she couldn't move, but she had to, there was someone—

"Saki!"

A hand landed on her arm, and Saki jolted from the sudden touch. Her heart stopped for a second, and she turned towards where the hand was coming from to—

Naoki stared at her, eyebrows pressing up and together. His hair was a mess, strands mixing together and tossed over his head. If Saki glanced behind him, his bed's covers had been torn off, blankets trailing at his feet. Saki's heartbeat slowed slightly, though it was still erratic.

"Are you..." Naoki squeezed Saki's arm, looking away from her. "... you okay? You were screaming."

Saki took a shuddering breath, feeling how sore her throat was. She breathed out shakily, then in again, trying to steady herself. Whenever she breathed, it felt... panicked, like... maybe she wasn't expecting to be able to breathe at all? 

Why? Was it a nightmare?

Saki tried to dig in her brain, tried to locate whatever nightmare had made her scream in her sleep. The moment she thought to before her waking up, though, her brain seemed to explode with pain, and her vision briefly went black. Her heartbeat spiked, and she clawed at her forehead, trying to get the pain to go away.

It hurt. It felt like there was something in her head, tearing it apart. She bit down on her lip, preventing any noises of pain from escaping her.

Naoki's grip got tighter. Saki looked over to him, her face scrunched with pain, and saw his eyes widening slightly, though he was clearly trying to keep it from doing so. He leaned a bit closer to her, and Saki couldn't help but think of her worried little brother of childhood. The expression on his was was similar to the one he had while he was hesitating to cross a river.

Saki breathed in. The pain in her head subsided slightly. "I'll be okay," Her voice was hoarse, struggling to be loud above the pain, "it's just a bad nightmare."

It felt like her stomach twisted at lying like that.

"... You sure?"

Saki sighed, reaching up a shaky arm to the hand Naoki was gripping onto her with. "Yes," She lied, "It was just a stupid nightmare, you don't need to worry." She shoved his arm off of her. Naoki pulled his hand back to his chest, a deeper frown burying itself into his face. Saki smiled at him, feeling the pain starting to slip away, though it was still burning there. 

Eventually, Naoki picked up his blanket that had trailed after him, and returned to his bed. He pulled his blankets over himself, and curled up inside. "Goodnight."

Saki watched as Naoki's breathing slowly returned to a steady pace, feeling the pain in her head ebb away with it. Her insides felt like they wanted to squirm, though. Biting her lip again, she turned over in her bed and pulled her blankets close.

Hopefully she would be able to sleep after... whatever just happened.

* * *

Saki's hand had just barely traced the lid of the cream puff box when it felt like her entire body recoiled against her will. She let out a small gasp, and the watery quality surprised and irritated her. Whenever she tried to get her fingers close to the lid of the box again, it felt like her heart would swell with an intense, emotional need to not... steal her brother's snack like she always did. Her vision blurred. She tried to blink the tears away.

A tear managed to slip out, and she bit her lip. Why was she crying over trying to open a stupid cream puff box? She blinked again, managing to clear her vision, and grabbed at the closest thing that she could use for a pre-work snack. She pulled out an apple.

She pulled away from the fridge, closing the door. As it shut, she noticed her hand was trembling. Saki clenched her teeth. 

She couldn't afford this. She was trying to be better than last year, and she didn't want the neighbors to be seeing her shaking in her footsteps on the way to work. She blinked away blurry vision again, wishing for her body to stop feeling whatever this was so strongly. She couldn't be seen crying. She couldn't.

She tightened her grip on the door, trying to steady it against the metal handle. A crunch came from her other hand, and Saki could feel the juice of the apple drip from her fingers. There went her pre-work snack.

She'd rather not risk experiencing... whatever that was in the fridge again. She could grab something from work.

* * *

Something was _wrong_. Saki had this sinking feeling in her chest that something... no, everything was off. She was able to do her job fine, sure. She could rearrange the shelves, lift boxes, advertise products with a smile... And she wasn't in pain. The closest thing she had to actual pain was the aches in her arms from moving boxes.

Yet her mind continued to scream at her that things were wrong. It flared up especially when her second year coworker, Chie Satonaka, showed her face, and Saki felt guilty for that. Chie didn't need to be on the receiving half of whatever bullshit was going on in her head.

Chie peeked from around the corner, where they were restocking the books section of the store. "Uh... you feelin' alright, Saki-senpai?"

The voice was wrong.

Chie had another bandage on her face, this time on her chin. Her previous bruise had already healed up, that's good. Was that from her being clumsy?

_Aren't you supposed to know?_

Saki shoved the book she was holding onto the shelf, ignoring the negative emotion that was starting to swirl around her heart again. Thankfully, she had been been preparing to place that book anyway, so it wasn't damaged by her trying to distract herself.

"I'm fine," Saki lied again, ignoring how her gut was telling her to tell the truth. "I didn't have the best sleep last night."

That part was true. Not only did Saki have a nightmare yesterday, _again_ , Saki had stumbled upon a dead body hanging from a telephone pole. That wasn't pleasant. Saki would probably have another nightmare tonight.

"Oh no!" Chie gasped, shoving her books onto her overflowing pile and rushing over to Saki. A twinge of annoyance shot through Saki, but she pushed it down as Chie brushed a hand through her hair.

She felt her shoulders loosening slightly, and she closed her eyes. Maybe this off feeling was because of the dead body. Was this a normal reaction? Having a nightmare and then walking to work and seeing a dead body? Who wouldn't be rattled by that? Well, maybe she shouldn't think about the dead body—

"Saki-senpai, you listening?"

Saki tensed up again, and her eyes opened. She looked to Chie, who pulled her hand away with a guilty look. Saki felt like her face reflected that guilt. "No. I'm sorry..."

She trailed off.

She was about to say someone else's name. No, someone else's nickname. The sound that was forming on her mouth was not an S, like Satonaka, but... an H.

Chie was still backing away, trying to keep a smile on her face. Saki lifted her head, looking at Chie's guilty look. Saki needed to make this better.

"I'll be fine." Another lie from her mouth. "I'll be sure to call you if I need help, alright?"

The apron-wearing girl blinked. Chie then smiled, the guilty look on her face. "Of course, Saki-senpai! I'll always be by your side!"

A flash of irritation.

Saki shoved it down again and tried to smile wider.

* * *

As the man rambled to her, she felt her lips curling.

 _Listen to him_ , her mind suggested suddenly, and her scowl deepened. She ignored the man and walked away.

The police room station was dark, and the police officer leered at her. She slapped him. They tumbled through the room, and Saki wanted to just escape. She drifted towards the center of the room—

_Stay away from the TV._

—and ignored her brain. Why would the TV be dangerous?

She tumbled through the foggy air, her scream being enveloped by the foggy air. Saki tried to gain control of her body, tried to slow her descent through the air of this world inside the TV, but she could only manage to pull her arms to her chest when—

**_SMACK!_ **

Saki yelped as pain erupted from her back, spreading like a fire through her veins. Everything hurt. She stretched out a shaky hand and pressed it against the ground, slowly getting to her knees.

The environment was shifting around her, though she couldn't really see it through the fog. If she tried to push past the pain starting to ring from her forehead, she could see—

_Someone else is in the fog. The inside of the Liquor Store looks slightly different— papers are scattered around the floor and tables, and some of the racks of beer were titled over, the beer containers' contents spilled out and seeping into the papers. The fog drifts around her, even here, and Saki squints into the fog._

_Another high school student, here? That looked like the Yasogami High Uniform. Saki steps forward, about to ask the other figure something, but the thickness of the fog drops sharply, leaving Saki's words in her throat._

_The other girl was looking at a photo. It's torn in her hands. Suddenly, she starts to laugh, and the cruelty of it startles Saki._

_"_ **_I never had a chance to say it,_ ** _" The other speaks, and Saki's words die away. She's heard this voice before, on old recordings her family took._

 _The other girl looks up, and aside from the golden glowing eyes, she looks exactly like Saki. The other Saki has a cruel grin on her face, amusement flickering in her golden eyes. "_ **_I always wanted to tell Hana-chan that he was a real pain in the ass._ ** _"_

—Hana-chan.

Hanamura.

_Yosuke Hanamura._

Her thoughts clicked into place, and she took a shuddering breath, arms shaking. That's who her coworker was _supposed_ to be, not Chie Satonaka.

And this...

Saki pulled her mind away from her current location, feeling a budding pain in her forehead. At least it wasn't distractingly painful. She pushed her hands against the ground, getting to her feet and glancing around at the foggy duplicate of the shopping district.

She took a step forward, then stopped.

She... went to the Liquor Store. She met her duplicate there. She... Her throat clogged up, and she tried to push the thought away. It didn't work.

She had died there.

If she went the other way, if she didn't go into that Liquor Store... she wouldn't meet her double. She wouldn't die, choked by darkness and pain from that monster that claimed to know her better than she knew herself. If she went in there, she'd die.

She wasn't able to apologize to Naoki about eating the cream puff. She remembered thinking that before she...

" **Oh, boo-hoo.** "

Saki's blood went cold. Her body went rigid, and her heartbeat sped up. No. No, this couldn't be happening. She hadn't even decided where to go! Saki's double was supposed to be inside, not out here!

Saki's dread pooled in her stomach as golden eyes gleamed out of the fog.

" **You figure out why you cried over that stupid fucking cream puff, but can't figure out why I'm here?** " Her copy walked out of the fog, still wearing the same duplicate copy of Saki's school uniform and still looking the exact same except for the golden eyes. " **I'll spell it out for you, since that's clearly how you like it— You're a bitch.** "

Saki stepped back, legs feeling like lead. Her copy stepped forward, crossing her arms. Saki saw a flicker of purple escape her copy at the motion.

" **Happy to help, you say with a smile, but you just want to tear their throats out.** " Her copy laughed, wicked grin on her face again. " **Have you really changed?** "

"I—" Saki's words got caught in her throat. _I have. I have, I'm not the delinquent anymore, I'm helping people..._

Her copy sneered. 

Saki realized that she could see the wrinkles on her copy's clothes. The fog was getting clearer. That wasn't good.

" **You really think someone will save you?** " The other Saki scoffed, " **You're just that kind third year, and you're not even that kind! When they find out how much of a fake you are...** " The other Saki leaned forward, and Saki took another step back, " **Well, they'll be glad to leave you for me to tear apart! They won't care about some bitch who just pretends to be nice!** "

Did anyone care when she died?

Was this a punishment, for being a delinquent for her first and second years of high school? Tormenting by this dark version of herself?

No, that couldn't be it. Saki opened her mouth to argue—

There was a sound of glass shattering.

A flowing black blur shot in front of Saki, a trail of shimmering blue tracing a giant blade. 

The blade swung through the air, and a shout came from the other side.

Saki's mouth was agape with awe, struck still by whatever this was covering her.

A furred paw curled around her wrist, and Saki yelped as she was pulled behind a building's wall. She heard a frustrated shout from the street they left behind.

Saki was pulled down to the ground, and she let out a shaking breath. She glanced to where the paw had been curled around her wrist to see a strange looking cat lifting the paw and stepping back. Well, a cat was what it resembled, anyway.

The cat was more like one of those huge theme park stuffed animals, only it was actually moving. It stood on two legs, like a human, and it had a tail that waved idly in the air behind it. Its fur was mainly white, with gray patches here and there— a notable gray patch was over one of the eyes. It seemed to be... "wearing" some formal overalls, though it was obviously just another pattern on the monster cat's fur.

"Sorry about that," The cat panted, and his voice sounded... familiar. She met his gray eyes, trying to control her own breathing as well. "I... had to get you out of the way quickly."

"You have a strong pull." Saki commented, trying not to be too snarky about it. The cat's ears twitched, though, and there was a slight smile on his face before he looked in the direction of the central street.

"I know I do." He responded, tail waving in the air again. He glanced back to Saki, then to the street. "Saki-s— Konishi. You know what we just ran from?"

"A monster," Saki's voice trembled, trying to keep the fear and rage from spilling into her voice. She was better than that. She was... She was... "It bears my face, but— but she's not me."

Saki could see every part of the creature's body wince at that. The ears flicked back, the shoulders tensed, and the tail tip lashed. "Shouldn't have said that."

"Why—"

There was a loud crash, and the sound of cascading bricks followed shortly after. Saki winced. The liquor store had gotten more wrecked when the creature shifted last time.

"That other you," The cat creature said, his voice somehow still level despite his twitching tail, "Is a part of you. Your Shadow. Everything it says, on some level, is true."

Saki wanted to fight that. But... that Shadow... it had known about her dying, once. It knew about her anger that she had forgotten she had. It pulled out a part of herself she hadn't even known existed, and pushed it to the forefront.

Like her dying there, uncared for.

The creature tensed up, tail unmoving. Then he wrapped his paw around Saki's wrist again, pulling her to her feet with a sharp yank. "Run!" 

Saki wasn't there anymore when a fossil-like creature smashed into the building, a roar piercing the air. More bricks fell and smashed against the ground, filling the air with noise.

The creature weaved around the back alleys of the duplicate Shopping District, eyes to the sky. "Is there any fog?" He asked, voice higher pitched than before.

"No, is this important?" Saki snapped back, continuously being jolted by the smaller figure dragging her.

The creature pulled her again, and this time to the ground. His tail lashed again. His ears pulled back, and a slight frown was on his lips. "It is," He hissed, "Shadows of people usually will not attack until either their owners deny them, or until the fog of this world escapes into our— the other world!"

_Our?_

Saki felt like she knew the answer to this question, but it tumbled from her throat anyway. "What happens if I deny my shadow?"

The cat creature's expression went to neutral, but his tail was still lashing. "You die."

_Gray eyes peek out from beneath the gray bowl cut, and they're narrow. "Yosuke's not annoying." The boy says, tone completely serious. He stares at her, and she stares at him. Why was he so... hard to read? Was he mad? Disappointed? She was making a joke._

_She pushes down the churning of emotions in her chest, and she waves a hand in the air, smiling. "I'm just teasing, you know..."_

This cat seemed like Souji Seta.

The cat stared into the sky, which Saki could see was a pulsing red and black. She could hear the faint crashing of bricks, which was getting louder. This cat creature's ear twitched, and he stared in the direction of the crashes, mouth set in a line. He was protecting her, wasn't he? Making sure she didn't die?

She bit her lip.

If an option was deny, the other option was... 

"What if I... accepted my Shadow?"

She didn't really want to, but it was either that or die, wasn't it?

The cat creature's head snapped in her direction, tail lashing. His gray eyes were wide, and his mouth opened a bit. He quickly shut his mouth and returned in a more neutral face. "Accepting your shadow... Is tougher than it seems." He adjusted himself so he stood up straight, holding a paw upwards towards the air. "You have to accept all of the repressed feelings, all of whatever you're burying, whatever fueled the Shadow's creation... accept it as a part of yourself."

A shimmering blue card spun into being, and Saki found her eyes trailing it.

The cat's gray eyes shone blue for a second, and he crushed the card in his hand. A sound of shattering glass cracked the air, and the being that Saki saw earlier formed behind the creature.

"If you accept all the parts of yourself you've denied," he said, "then it becomes your Persona. A manifestation of your inner self. This is Izanagi." The cat's persona bowed his head slightly, and Saki found herself nodding back. "Weakness becomes strength. Your Persona aids you."

If she accepted what she had been repressing... Her tougher emotions? Her disliking of people? The fact that this Shadow had killed her last time? All she had to do was say those things were her. Could she really do it?

Another crash. This one was closer. The cat creature swirled around, pointing out a paw. "Go, Izanagi!"

The caped figure darted out from their hiding spot, and Saki heard the sound of clashing metal as Izanagi's sword and her Shadow's sharp, bony claws met in battle. Izanagi weaved around the Shadow's clumsy swipes, and the Shadow shot out darkness from her beak.

"When I defeat this shadow," The cat creature said, tone dead certain, and Saki turned her eyes to him once again, "It will turn back into its human form."

"You won't change fundamentally." He glanced towards her, ears rising and tail curling. "You'll change, sure, but only because you know yourself better. You'll be true to yourself."

True to herself?

The cat turned around and leaped onto one of the copied buildings, and Saki could only watch as he lunged and landed a claw strike on one of the Shadow's legs.

* * *

Hitobashira nested into her heart, and the euphoria of feeling whole and complete quickly made way for exhaustion.

The cat was ready for her when she tumbled, wrapping an arm around her waist, even if he had to reach up slightly to do it. He looked up at her, tail waving in the air yet again. Izanagi faded away.

"Don't push yourself, Saki-sen—sensei," He slipped on her honorific, and Saki noticed his ears droop slightly. "When you accept your Persona, it tends to be exhausting. I'll help you home."

With that, the cat creature pulled her forward, and Saki stumbled from that. Her mind exhausted and her heart recently whole, she allowed herself to ask, "How are you going to take me back? We're in another world."

Saki stepped forward, leaning a bit on the cat. The cat sighed quietly, but stepped forward with her. He guided the way, quiet, not answering her question.

The street was beginning to thin out to nothingness and the fog was starting to return when he finally answered, "As a resident of the world, I have a feel for how things work." His pawsteps faded into the foggy air. "I know how to send people who stumble into here back home."

"You can do that?" Saki asked, disbelieving. She couldn't see the road anymore, and whatever she was walking on, it wasn't a road.

A smile quirked up on the cat's lips before it disappeared. His tail waved a bit faster than it usually did, though, and Saki looked at it. Happy about something? "I've done it once." He said, proud. "And I've saved you, too."

Saki nodded. "I see."

It went quiet. Not even their footsteps escaped the fog's muffled noise, and only the touch of the cat creature's paw on her waist let her keep going at all. Saki let her thoughts wander.

She needed to name this cat. She was tired of just thinking of it as 'cat creature who was similar to the transfer student from the first time around'. Her feet hit against weird ground, and she felt herself being pulled by said cat creature.

... Similar to that transfer student...

_Our world._

_Almost calling her something that surely wasn't meant to be Saki-sensei like he tried to excuse it as._

_His voice was like the transfer student's, only slightly higher pitched._

A question bubbled in her throat. She was half tempted not to say it, but she didn't accept her Shadow for no reason. If she didn't say this now, she would probably die with it unasked.

"Say," Saki started, and felt the cat's paws shift slightly on her back, "You remind me of this transfer student I met once before I got here. His name was Souji Seta, you're—"

She didn't get to finish.

The cat jolted, and Saki felt what must've been his claws drag sharply against her skin— ow— before he quickly grabbed back onto her. "You remember **_me_ ** as the _transfer student_ ? _How?!"_ He shout-asked, barely keeping his voice from going even higher in pitch.

He was— He was Souji Seta? He knew about this last time that she knew about, and knew that this time, he wasn't supposed to be the transfer student?

"Y... You're Souji-san." Saki gasped, glancing down in his direction. She could see his gray eyes slipping away from wide to his normal stare, and he nodded. He had a worried frown on his face, 'eyebrows' pressing downward.

"...Yes." Souji— the cat creature Souji— nodded, and then was silent. After a few moments, he started pushing her forward again, and she started to walk with him. "We'll talk about this at the TV Studio. Could be helpful."

This was weird.

"What the fuck." Saki breathed.

Souji let a laugh escape him, but it didn't seem quite real. "Yeah. What the fuck."

* * *

Souji was explaining his part of the story, up until he had introduced Teddie. The bear-like mascot creature definitely sounded similar to what Souji looked like now. The cat creature trailed off, and Saki noticed that his tail was starting to wave a bit faster.

What was he—

"You know," He said, almost to himself, "I didn't introduce myself to Yukiko, Chie, and Kanji. They don't know my name." He placed a claw on his side, tapping as he thought. "Hm..."

"What are you talking about?" Saki was tired. What was Souji doing? "What—"

"You," Souji grinned, though he was obviously trying to fight it, "can call me _Purr_ ci."

It took Saki a moment.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Saki groaned, rolling her eyes. "A fucking pun?"

"Teddie loved puns," Souji— _Purrci_ explained with a grin on his face, "especially the bear puns. I may as well follow in his footsteps."

Saki glared at him. Purrci only chuckled, and he continued.

* * *

The store lights were completely dark. If Saki squinted, though, she could see the barest strands of lights out of the store windows. Was it opening hours for the store? It felt way too early.

_"Bring back Yukiko, Chie, and Kanji." Purrci commanded, in front of the stack of TVs he had summoned. "Get rest first, but as soon as you can... Bring them here." Then he tilted his head, frowning. "Or just bring them here if... whoever is in Yukiko's spot gets thrown in."_

Saki let out a yawn, her eyes drifting closer to being closed. Her exhaustion was settling in even more now that she was out here, instead of in that TV. Oh, right, the TV. She slipped another foot out of it, and slumped to the ground.

She was just... going to nap... ignore the screaming of the poor morning shift person...

**Author's Note:**

> that's right.
> 
> saki lives in this AU.
> 
> and it's all because i decided it would be a good idea for souji to remember the past timeline while he's stuck in the TV world. What have I done?


End file.
